Two Chinese pork jerky products seized at customs have tested positive for African swine fever, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
Tests found the two products collected from the quarantine amnesty bins at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on Jan. 23 and 24 — one from Jiangsu Province and the other without a label indicating origin — had strains of the virus identical to those found in China, the council said.
The results brought the number of confiscated pork products testing positive for the disease to 20, council data showed.
Photo: CNA
Two more Chinese visitors on Saturday were denied entry into the country after failing to pay a NT$200,000 (US$6,505) fine for the illegal import of pork products, bringing the total of barred visitors since the regulation took effect on Jan. 25 to six, all Chinese, council data showed.
The council reiterated that it hoped Beijing authorities would provide more information about the disease, after the Rural Development Foundation on Saturday received a response from China’s Association for Agricultural Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait.
The foundation has since 2004 served as an information channel with the association, which is governed by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
It first wrote to the Chinese association on Dec. 20 last year to request information about the African swine fever outbreak in China, but the latter replied on Jan. 15 that the outbreaks were “sporadic” and called on Taiwanese to stop spreading false information, according to copies of the letters shown on the foundation’s Web site.
It wrote to the association again on Jan. 25 and received a reply on Saturday.
The disease has spread to 25 Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions, with 950,000 pigs having been culled, but blocks over infection areas in 23 provinces have been lifted, showing China’s quarantine measures were effective and that the outbreaks have abated, the association said.
While it was a sign of progress that the Chinese side finally replied, the information was of no avail as the same data is available from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the council said on Saturday, adding that it expected Chinese authorities to provide “complete” information about the outbreaks.
The council last year said it wanted to send a delegation of academics and technical experts to China to collect information on the outbreaks, but has yet to receive a response from the other side, council Chief Secretary Chang Chih-sheng (張致盛) said yesterday.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry